Perfect Avatar

Two months had passed since the fight between Dora and Mercy. The two trained in the morning, following the same pattern, but after being seriously scolded by Elizabeth's father, it was decided that they would only fight in Candace's Rifts.

It was a breath of fresh air for Mercy, who could finally let go and feel reborn, but for two other people, this change was a danger.

The group was staying in the mansion of Maxim's family, whose parents run food industries across the Kingdom.

The place was a huge building, with two floors reserved for dormitories.

The upper floor was reserved for women's rooms, while the lower floor was reserved for men.

In each of their rooms, Freya and Solaria faced the windows, bathed in moonlight, when a shadow appeared behind them.

"It took you long enough," said Freya without turning her back on him.

***

"I hope you have good news." Solaria did the same.

The shadow dropped to one knee and turned out to be Gersey, at Freya, and Moonra at Solaria, both sweating with anxiety.

"... By the way, since when am I your servant?" Moonra pouted.

Solaria turned and ran her hand through her hair.

"Since I will be a Sin's wife if my plan succeeds, and you don't want me to remember you as the one who abandoned me."

"Ugh... Ok, ok, it was a rhetorical question... So here's my report."

***

(Freya's room)

On his knee, Gersey coughed and took a piece of paper.

"Anesidora follows the same pattern every day: he doesn't sleep, he lies on his bed but randomly pops somewhere after 4 am, and then he drinks coffee with a huge amount of sugar. He then go wakes up Miss Candace for training and then, they go in Rifts, alongside Miss Iris, Miss Eryl, and Midgard's Serpent. Currently, they're on the verge of reaching A-rank Rifts."

***

(Solaria's room)

"They stay there until they've completed a certain amount of achievement, Dora doesn't get tired, so their limit is determined by completing a job. After that, Mercy join them for her training with him, usually for about half an hour, but one day she managed to fight for a whole hour. After that, he has lunch and other Rift's training, and then in the afternoon, he fights and loses against Iris."

"... That's a big problem..."

"Already? Oh, then I better not tell you that Zuri goes to his bedroom every night."

***

(Freya's room)

"She goes where?!"

"For her bedtime story, apparently Sir Dora has many wholesome stories, but it also appears that their origin forbids him to tell anyone else about it. I might be wrong, but I have the intuition that this could be related to his biggest weakness ."

***

(Solaria's room)

The Princess stopped strangling her brother and opened her eyes widely.

"Weakness?"

"Since I tell you, you sick! I noticed an interesting pattern about him, when he uses light magic, he becomes nice, like a little dog, but when he uses this fighting stance, when he spreads his arms, he becomes like to madman."

***

(Freya's room)

"A puppy?... And how could I benefit from it?"

"The thing is, Midgard's Serpent referred to him as G, and when he becomes nice, she calls him B. My guess is that this is some kind of ability, when Mister Dora is B, he is nice and helpful, but when he becomes the G, he is unpleasant."

"Do you realize how stupid that sounds?"

***

(Solaria's room)

"The thing is, if you play it clever, there's actually a way for you to take benefits from it, for example, if you force Dora to use this form and then make him promise, swear or anything that he couldn't refuse, then there's a chance to get him easily."

Solaria walked toward the window, looking thoughtful.

"... I heard that he used to have a girlfriend but no one understood how they put themselves together... that must be it!"

She clenched her fist and as the moonlight illuminated it, she seemed more evil than ever.

"That's it, that must be it, I need this to be it! Light magic? Everything makes sense!"

***

(Freya's room) 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝓮𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝙢

"Are you sure you're ok, sis? You look a little scary."

"You don't understand, having this man at my service is only a dream, even if I tricked him, as an Avatar he is above the law... But he still played this healer's game until he found an opportunity to run. It means that if I use his weakness correctly..."

***

(Solaria's room)

"... I can make him serve me forever, and if I can even follow his will, he will never want to get rid of me! Moonra, good job! Tomorrow we will begin the ultimate operation to capture an Avatar!"

***

(Both of them at the same time)

"You've been playing me for too long, but now it's my turn"

The following day, a strange event happened for Dora.

Early in the morning, he had received two invitations to help with a B-rank raid near the city at noon, the two for the same Rift.

In the car, he was surprised to see, accompanying him Freya, Solaria, and their brothers.

The two ladies faced each other silently, in staring contests, while their brothers were sweating profusely.

"What a strange coincidence, that we all get invited for the same Rift."

"Fufufu, yes, what a surprise... It seems like Rifts attract not only monsters but scavengers too." Solaria gave a deadly gaze to Gersey who shook his head frantically.

"Scavenger? How fitting for the children of the Sin of Glutonny." Freya answered without a care.

The rest of the journey consisted of provocations of this kind, in the midst of which Moonra and Gersey sighed in distress, much to the amusement of Dora, unaware that he was in the eye of the cyclone.

A little later, they arrived in a vast field in the middle of which a white Rift was rumbling.

Dora stared at this phenomenon for a few seconds then turned to his friends.

"Is Grandma around?"

Solaria and Freya looked at each other worriedly.

"N-no, it must be a coincidence, she is visiting the supermarket," Solaria said, looking away.

Freya nodded and covered her lie.

"It might be the consequences of the variant coming, I heard about reports of uncanny Rifts, but it's not a reason to waste time. Let's get inside."

"Only us? How come no one noticed that and made a report? It's strange... Thinking about it, since it was an anonymous invitation... Is there even a paycheck?!"

The two girls facepalmed and gave deadly gases to their shaking brothers.

"S-sir Dora! Maybe we should clear it first? I mean, a brave man like you..."

"I've shut down 47 students."

"... I mean, a strong man like you shouldn't bother about such a weak Rift..."

Gersey lowered his head, Freya, impatiently walked straight into the Rift, followed in a hurry by Moonra and her brother.

Dora rolled his eyes and completed the walk with Solaria.

Further away, under a bunch of trees, a girl with white hair and light outfits was lying next to a picnic set, a girl with blue hair next to her.

"... They really went inside."

"See? I told you he would be fooled by this, the color doesn't matter."

In the Rift, the five were in a dark forest.

Strange noises could be heard from afar, making Gersey tremble.

"Hm... Was it really necessary that I come too? I've never been in a Rift before."

"And when will be the right time? When you hit puberty? I won't have a Balder situation in my family."

Moonra chuckled and pumped his chest.

"Don't worry, this Prince won't let any monsters touch you, I'll guarantee everyone's protection."

He glanced at Freya who didn't even react and noticed Solaria's furious gaze.

"Thank you, dear brother, but in the presence of this dear Dora, I believe that we should let him deal with the situation."

The concerned person jumped.

"Me?"

"Yes, who else? You are the strongest, you're definitely the one in charge."

"What about you? I barely feel anything in this Rift, you should be able to clear that by your... Uh?"

He stopped suddenly and took a thinking pose.

Freya thought for a moment and moved closer.

"Maybe we can, yes, but aren't you in need of experience? You shouldn't let this chance slip, I would even suggest you use only one skill, as a handicap."

Solaria flinched and smiled widely.

"Yeah! Great idea, this is nothing for you, you should definitely use only one skill... A bright skill, something very... Enlightening..."

"Ah dammit, fine, fine, I don't need both of you to tell me that too, I'll do it."

He walked a few steps, looking around him, leaving Solaria and Freya with a sinister smile.

(Good... Once you finish here, I'll see how much you're controllable in this state.)

(And then, nothing will be able to stop me.)

Dora stopped in a larger space and closed his eyes.

"What a strange Rift... Is this only because of a variant? I don't even feel any monster... Except that one."

He opened his eyes shining yellow.